In known teats, structured surface areas are formed by thickened material portions, i.e., projections, or depressions, respectively, between the projections, wherein particularly ribs, nodules or also honeycomb-like structures are known, cf., e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,110-B1, DE 32 41 845-A1, U.S. Pat. No. 2,366,214-A and AT 408 185-B. Generally, these projections, or depressions, respectively, are provided around the teat, and they should be of help during teething, provide saliva-flow-channels or imitate a mother's breast so as to provide for a pleasant sucking sensation during drinking in case of feeding bottle teats for infants, cf. in this context also DE 466 541-C or also DE 197 16 534-A; in the latter one, particularly ledge-shaped or winding elevations have been described which each are preferably formed on a broadside of the cross-sectionally oval nipple of the teat.
However, the known teats imitate a mother's breast only very insufficiently, since the projections result in an excessive structuring so that a similarity with a mother's breast with a view to the surface structure is not really achieved. Moreover, the comparatively highly structured surface, in particular ribs, nodules and the like projections have the undesired effect of providing an excessive stiffening of the teat in the region in question. In practice, this has the consequence that particularly soft materials are used for producing the teat so as to compensate for the undesired stiffness, which in turn causes an insufficient strength of the teat in the remaining regions.